As Internet based broadband systems have become widely deployed, the display of high-quality streaming media (e.g., television signals) delivered through Internet protocol (“IP”) based networks has been contemplated. Many vendors seek both to display media as well as to stream digital media in various customer premises, including digitally connected homes. However, because of the high bandwidth and processing power required to deliver and display digital video, it is quite challenging to provide high quality IP-based television (“IPTV”) functionality using traditional settop box (“STB”) capabilities.
Moreover, homes can be equipped with multiple STBs, personal computers (PC's), and video gaming consoles, etc. to provide for the rendering of video programs at multiple locations within the home, which can complicate the storage and rendering of digital data across a network connecting devices at the different locations. A particular problem is the difficultly in handling so called “trick modes” of playing back digital data over a network (e.g., fast forwarding, playing in reverse, and skipping forward or backward). Playing back digital data received over a network by a client from a server in a trick mode can require either the client processing the data at a different speed than when in normal playback mode or the server sending different data to the client when in trick mode than when in normal playback mode. For example, when a user of the client wishes to view the digital data in a fast forward (FF) mode at eight times the normal playback speed the server may send only every eighth video frame of the digital data that makes up a program, so that the client may render every eighth frame of the program at a rate that is normally used to render every frame of the program when the program is displayed in a normal mode. In this manner the viewer can experience the program at a rate that is eight times faster than normal playback speed. However, when switching from normal playback mode to a trick mode, the viewer may experience a relatively long delay when a network session between the client and the server for normal playback is interrupted and a new trick mode session is established. This long delay may diminish the viewer's experience of the program.